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BBC : Online classified advertising ‘booming’.by Andrew Redfern @ 8th April 2009 11:58 am Ebay The BBC has posted an interesting report noting the surge in use of online classifieds website such as Criagslist and Gumtree. According to figures quoted from HitWise visits to such sites in the US are up 84% compared to last year. This shows that while the traditional advertising market may be in decline but the online classifieds are bucking this trend and thriving. According to Hitwise the top search term in the US in March was for US online classified site Craigslist taking over from social networking site MySpace which was the most searched for site for the previous 16 months. It’s thought that the recession has played a part in turning people from paid advierts to the free online classifieds. The article on the BBC website quotes Hitwise research director Heather Dougherty as saying “Consumers have embraced free classifieds as a way to generate income by selling personal items, while others take advantage of the deals available”. In the UK the growth in the online classifieds has been more modest with sites such as GumTree seeing a 15% growth in traffic. As yet Craiglist is not as popular with UK internet users and so there is no nothing with as strong a brand with eBay still being seen as primarily an online auction site. This may well change however as Craiglist will almost certainly seek to expand it’s UK presense and eBay is attempting to move from auctions into a more Classifieds style of listing. America’s newspaper industry has been badly hit by the economic downturn with the rise of classified advertising websites held partly to blame. Would you like to know more about online classifieds? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. The Times follow up on Alifeforsaleby Andrew Redfern @ 23rd February 2009 4:32 pm Ebay Saw this in the The Times over the weekend. They caught up with the guy who tried to sell his house, car, job & friends on ebay in order to start a new life. One Year On: The man who sold his life If you remember the ebay auction was perhaps predictably ruined by time-wasters and mischief makers leaving Ian Usher at somewhat of an even greater crossroads in his attempt to start a new life. Instead of the £192,000 promised he ended up with substantially less than that and so was forced to change his plans. However it seems that there was a substantial silver lining to the cloud when the story sparked a bidding war between movie producers all wanting to make a film about the story. Ian has been using the money to live a sort of dream experience year travelling round the world fulfilling lifetime ambitions wherever possible. Whilst Ian was desperate for a new start and came up with the pretty novel and interesting way of cutting his ties it did highlight how the open nature of the internet can derail even the most well meaning of schemes once news of it gets out into the public domain. According to the article Time magazine voted Usher’s life auction as one of the 10 oddest news stories of 2008. When a story attracts that sort of interest things can very easily go awry. Still it’s nice to know that the story had some sort of a happy ending, it’ll be interesting to see how the whole saga looks when viewed via Hollywood. Would you like to know more about this subject? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. eBay seller sues over negative feedback.by Andrew Redfern @ 27th October 2008 10:50 am Ebay A uk eBay sellar has begun legal action against one of his customers after bad feedback was left resulting from one of his sales.
The user received a Samsung F700v mobile phone instead of the advertised Samsung F700 and complained that as well as being an incorrect model the phone was chipped and scratched. The customer, Chris Read, left negative feedback and received a full refund however the seller, Joel Jones who trades under the name onsalexuk, has began legal procedings. According to a report in Friday’s Times Mr Jones defended his action saying “I am being punished on eBay because of this as sellers who have negative feedback appear lower down the screen in searches than other people. I’m losing money by the day and my business could go under because of it. I’ve been left with no option but to take legal action” eBay have responded with a statement of their own saying “We are very disappointed that this seller has chosen to sue rather than to attempt to resolve the buyer’s problem amicably.” and pointed out that one negative comment is highly unlikely to effect a seller that still has over a 98% positive rating. According to UK law Mr Jones could have a case for libel if the comments are deemed defamatory. Mr Read has refused to revoke the negetive comments saying “I can’t believe someone can be so petty. I only wanted to buy a phone. All I had done was left an honest opinion and everything I said was true. “I thought that was why the feedback service was there. It’s not like I wrote anything malicious or nasty” Read the full article at The Time website : eBay buyer faces libel action after leaving negative feedback Would you like to know more about this eBay and ecommerce? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Reuters report eBay will ban ivory sales following pressure from IFAWby Andrew Redfern @ 21st October 2008 2:00 pm Ebay The Reuters new agency have reported that online auction site eBay are to bring in a worldwide band on the sale of ivory products.
The ban is expected to be fully in force by the new year and comes after a wildlife protection charity, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, reportedly found 4 thousand elephant ivory products listed on the site. According to Reuters eBay has stated that it would still allow the limited sales certain ivory products. Mainly where the product is an antique containing only small amounts of elephant ivory. The example they gave was an antique piano with ivory keys. Antique items that are made primarily of ivory will not fall under this exception so that things such as ivory jewelry and chess sets will bot be allowed under the new policy. Elephants are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the international Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. IFAW have welcomed eBay’s announcement saying “IFAW congratulates eBay on this very important step to protect elephants. With these findings and eBay’s leadership, there is no doubt left that all Internet dealers need to take responsibility for their impact on endangered species by enacting and enforcing a ban on all online wildlife trade. eBay has set the standard for protecting elephants, now governments and other online dealers need to follow their example” Would you like to know more about this eBay & eCommerce in general? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. EBay to cut jobsby Andrew Redfern @ 7th October 2008 2:41 pm Ebay Internet auction & retail site EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has announced that it will be cutting 10% of it’s staff as it looks to streamline it’s costs after a difficult 3rd quarter of 2008.
The company announced the cut as it admitted it’s revenue would be at the low end of of their expectations (Between $2.1 and $2.15 billion). John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive said “While never an easy decision to make, these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth,”. A spokesperson for EBay’s uk operation has admitted that jobs there are at risk. Conversely EBay’s profits have exceded expectations and the company has also announced the $820 million aquisiton of Bill Me Later an online service that allows users to defer payment on goods. Would you like to know more about online auctions and retailing? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. EBay announce major changes to their listing process.by Andrew Redfern @ 21st August 2008 2:57 pm Ebay eBay has announced that it is cutting the fees sellers pay for placing a fixed-price listing on their US site, eBay are trying to improve the balance between buyers and sellers and claw back market share they’ve lost to rivals like Amazon.com.  eBay The total sellers’ fees will go down in most cases under the new pricing structure. The main change will be that in the case of multiple items the fees will be charged as a one off transaction no matter how many are listed. This will help big volume sellers immensely. Fixed-price items currently make up 43% of listings on eBay and attract a higher volume as buyers don’t have to enter into the bidding process and wait for a auction to close. The changover will occur on September 16th and similar changes will follow in the UK and Germany. It will be complemented by a new more indepth search interface allowing users to focus on auctions or fixed price listings. The change is timed to be fully up and running for eBay’s busy Christmas period. Would you like to know more about this eCommerce and online auctions? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Belgian court EBay verdict mirrors Tiffany ruling on L’Oreal caseby Andrew Redfern @ 14th August 2008 1:25 pm Ebay A Belgian court has given another ruling in favour of EBay in a case involving counterfeit good being sold on the online aunction giant. This time the case was brought by L’Oreal in five European nations, including Belgium, saying the company was not doing enough to prevent the fake goods being posted on its sites. The Belgian court is the first jurisdiction to return a judgement on the case.
According to an EBay spokesperson the court has ruled that the online auction site does not have “a general monitoring obligation” for it’s listings. The spokesperson continued “The judge confirmed that eBay acted diligently when it received letters from L’Oreal, We cooperated by removing items L’Oreal complained about.” There are still 4 seperate rulings to come in the various countries but this verdict, coming as it does on the back of the EBay / Tiffany verdict is setting a strong precedent. Would you like to know more about this subject? If so, contact Hit Search, SEO and Google adWords qualified PPC specialists, on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world out there, make sure you become visible. Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest:
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